Jun 19, 2013

Posts Comments

You are here: Home / Archives for jose reyes

Upset? No Way Jose!

Dec 6, 2011 By 2 Comments

If you are a realist you saw this coming a mile away, no way was Jose Reyes coming back. However, in my opinion this is a good thing. The way the Mets are currently constructed adding Jose Reyes to mix isn’t the piece that is going to get them back to the World Series. With or without Jose this team is fighting for at best third place. Why should the Mets add another $20 million dollar contract to the mix and give this team less flexibility in the future when they may actually be a piece or two away from playoff contention.

The thing is this is one of the smarter moves the team has made in awhile, the Omar administration would have just throw cash as him like Ollie P, Castillo or Bay. Let’s face it folks, the Mets are not going to be able to contend for awhile. The Phils still have Halladay et. al. The Braves, Nats and Fish all have young studs and well, we have a AAAA team. By time the Mets are ready to contend again, Jose Reyes will be long past his prime. Signing him would have just added another anchor around a team that needs flexibility going forward.

Even with all of this information, we are forgetting the most obvious thing, JOSE IS INJURY PRONE! The Mets definitely cannot afford to take a risk on someone who’s legs have been a problem for most of his career. Jose wanted six years, how productive are those legs going to be in the second part of this contract. For a guy who came back this year after an injury and forgot what a stolen base looked like and couldn’t hit a triple in a triples ballpark, the risk was too much. If we were talking about a power hitter at 34 versus a leadoff guy at 34 are too totally different things.

There is definitely blame to the Wilpon’s in this mess however, they gambled with the Mets money and lost. A team that was adding a $20 million piece an off-season is now reduced to cutting payroll left and right. If this was 5 years ago regardless of how competitive the team was they would have been able to sign Jose to a huge contract. Those days have past us and because of the Wilpon’s we will be reduced to Gee, Duda and Murphy as our best players instead of Beltran, Delgado and Reyes. The ownership is a complete joke in my opinion and things are only getting worse. You can’t blame Jose for running away from the joke that is the Mets.

Lastly, how can anyone be surprised? The Mets are bad, remember the jokes from a few years ago that people didn’t want to play for the Mets, do you think that idea has changed with a few more bad seasons? Are you surprised Jose chased money and moved to Miami. Jose showed his true colors on the last day of the season. Jose didn’t stay in for the fans or to help the team, he cared about his batting title. He doesn’t care about the Mets, he cares about Jose. This is the same guy that fought with Jerry Manuel in the first inning of Jerry’s career in front of everyone to see. Of course, he would chase the money, I am not shocked.

I think most Met fans I know have my same sentiment about Jose and that it is was smart to let him go. I would also go as far as saying that like the Phillies most Met fans are going to hate this guy when he is not in your uniform. Here’s to the Marlins being stuck with a bad contract in a few years!

Filed Under: Breaking News Tagged With: , ,

This is F’N RIDICULOUS!

May 11, 2010 By 1 Comment

I jokingly was knocking Brian the other day about being too negative about the team. But watching this game against the Nats and watching Castillio hit into a double play, I just can’t take these stats they are spewing out about the Mets with runners on.

They are batting .228 with RISP, .185 with the bases loaded. Tonight they are 2-11 with RISP alone. Reyes (.314 slugging percentage) Manuel’s go-to guy in the third hole has just flown out twice with men on third.

Here’s a great stat in 1,242 plate apperances this year, they have left 232 men on base. Whether this is encouraging or not they have only grounded into 18 double plays. Take that for what it is.

Tonight they got on base with the first at bat 6 times in 8 innings as of writing this, but only have 2 runs against the Nats, the Nats!!! 12 hits, 2 runs as of now. I know I’m rambling but I had to rant. For a positive, seeing Wright get two opposite field doubles has been nice.

Filed Under: Breaking News Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Mets Projected Lineup

Apr 2, 2010 By 3 Comments

Well with a few days left we are looking at the projected lineup for the 2010 New York Mets.  I am looking at the opening day lineup and also next week when Reyes comes back, I will also give my two cents on a lineup and hopefully if I did it right will have a poll for you as well.  Here we go:

1. CF Angel Pagan

2. 2B Luis Castillo

3. 3B David Wright

4. 1B Mike Jacobs

5. LF Jason Bay

6. RF Jeff Francouer

7. C Rod Barajas

8. SS Alex Cora

9. P Johan Santana

Well obviously Reyes will be at the top of the order when he come back, basically my biggest gripe is Jacobs batting fourth.  yes he has a big bat but also has the penchant for hitting .220.  Now with Wright, Jacobs, Bay & Frenchy you are looking at a good 400 K’s.  But at least with Wright & Bay you have .300 hitters.  Really there is no reason that Bay shouldn’t be protecting Wright or the other way around.  When Beltran comes back you know he slides into the 4 hole, and that could be a great 1-2-3 punch.  Personally when Beltran comes back I would do this:

1. SS Jose Reyes

2. CF Carlos Beltran

3. 3B David Wright

4. LF Jason Bay

5. RF Jeff Francouer

6. 1B Mike Jacobs

7. C Rod Barajas

8. 2B Luis Castillo

Now I know there is talk about lefty, righty matchups but I say screw that.  get your best hitters up there and let them have at it.  Let’s be honest I don’t think the Mets are going to be in too many 1-0 ballgames.  And the reason for batting Beltran second he can utilize his speed and not ask him to do too much in the power department.  Let him move Reyes over and he has a real patient eye and gives Reyes time to reek havoc and it will also give Beltran good pitches to hit with Reyes on the pitchers mind and Wright & Bay behind him.  So basically it’s my call to Jerry, take Jacobs out of the four hole right about nowish.

[polldaddy poll=2998767]

Filed Under: 2010 Mets Tagged With: , , , , ,

Reyes cleared to begin swinging

Mar 28, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Mike Puma reported today for the NY Post that Jose Reyes is set to begin taking swings and other baseball activities. After 4 days of running and general conditioning, Jose feels his legs are back under him enough for him to start advancing to the next stage of his delayed spring training.

Reyes is expected to soon begin playing simulated games against Mets’ minor leaguers, giving him a chance to get several at-bats a day against live pitching. That could be the last step before making his Grapefruit League debut later this week.

But the Mets and Reyes are still playing it cool, saying there is no timetable in place, either for Reyes’ spring training or season debut. The Mets open the season a week from tomorrow, when they face the Marlins at Citi Field.
“We’ll continue to follow the program the physical therapy people have,” manager Jerry Manuel said. “Now we’re able to incorporate him into team activities, which is good.”

This is great news as it gives Jose about week to play in those simulated games and shake the rust off the rest of his game. As much as I want to see him in uniform on opening day, I really hope they do not rush him, nor do they allow him to rush himself. It’s much more important that he is there for play games 4-162 then it is for him to be in those first few games. A setback now could really crush morale.

Make sure you check out the NYPost Mets Blog as they do good work and it’s always informative.

Filed Under: 2010 Mets Tagged With: , , ,

Please Mets, Do Not Screw This Up!!!!

Mar 24, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Everyone says it every game, if Jose Reyes goes, then go the Mets. The Mets record nearly goes hand in hand with Jose’s stats. If Jose gets on base, then he mostly likely will score and if Jose scores the Mets are likely to win. An easy concept to follow, get Jose in the lineup and good things will happen.

However, as I ran on the treadmill at the gym today and saw ESPN’s bottom line and it said “Reyes to return to baseball activities, Opening Day in question”, I thought “oh here we go again, he is going to rush back and get hurt or something.’” Baseball is a marathon, just to have Jose out on the field during introductions and making the casual Met fan happy is not worth this long term risk of rushing back.

Jose is virtually coming back today for his first day of spring training, it is an unfair expectation to expect him to be ready in 12 days. If I was confident in how this team was run and it’s medical staff, then this wouldn’t even be a concern but it is. We know what the Wilpon’s are about, making money and selling tickets. It’s simple, he sells seats, people want to see him and their is no way they want empty seats on Opening Day. We know the medical staff will clear him to play regardless of what is best for the team. Most likely, Jose will probably be right there pushing them to let him play faster then he should. My opinion is that he will be their on Opening Day on the field and I feel that it could be a big mistake. Please Mets listen to your fan base one time, we will be patient this year just do the right thing for the team, make sure Jose is okay and ready before he suits up and we will see him soon enough and be with you guys for what we hope is an exciting 2010 season.

Filed Under: 2010 Mets, Blogging Tagged With: , , ,

Breaking News and Hopefully Happy…..

Mar 23, 2010 By Leave a Comment

The NY Daily News is reporting that doctors have cleared Jose Reyes to resume baseball activity.  This could be a very good sign for the Mets and hopefully Jose will have no further setbacks.  Check out the link here.

Filed Under: Breaking News Tagged With: , , , , ,

Who Will Be Back First???

Mar 22, 2010 By 1 Comment

We know that all Met fans cannot wait until Jose Reyes and Carlos Beltran can come back from the DL, who do you think will return first???

[polldaddy poll=2934893]

Filed Under: 2010 Mets, Polls Tagged With: , ,

Who is the Mets opening day shortstop?

Mar 15, 2010 By Leave a Comment

As you no doubt know by now the Mets will be without Jose Reyes until at least May. So that begs the question of just who will be the starting shortstop for the Mets on opening day?

Most people have just assumed that it will be Alex Cora. He filled in for Reyes last year for a while until he himself got hurt with some bad thumbs. Cora is highly regarded as a great student of the game and many have said he will be a coach in the future.

That’s all well and good but I am going to make a case that Ruben Tejada should be the Mets opening day starting shortstop. The 20-year-old shortstop hit .289 with five homers and 46 RBI in 488 at-bats with Double-A Binghamton last season. Those are decent stats, but it isn’t about that. The Mets need to put the best defensive option they have in the field on opening day.

Imagine having Alex Cora and Luis Castillo as your defensive pairing up the middle. Both are aging veterans and both have greatly reduced range because of it. Could you imagine poor Mike Pelfrey in that scenario? Pelf and his cutter getting ground ball after ground ball and watching them just go by our two old middle infielders. That’s not going to work. If it’s deemed that Tejada is much better then Cora in the field then he must play. I don’t really care if the kid hits .100 at the plate. There is no way we can have a double play pairing of Castillo and Cora. It just wont work.

I like Alex Cora and like him on the team, though I though it absurd what Minaya paid for him, but that’s more as a bench guy and a locker room type guy that can spell Reyes or Castillo here or there. He can not play extended time for this team.

So take the kid aside, tell him you don’t care what he does at the plate, focus on his fielding and lets see what he can do. Explain to him up front there is really no pressure on him, and he will be sent down when Reyes returns. This way you don’t have to worry about ruining the kid, and you get to take a look at what you have potentially.

Truth is, from where I am looking at it, the Mets don’t have any other options.

Filed Under: 2010 Mets, Blogging Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Mets Memories: Reyes Cycle ’06

Mar 14, 2010 By 1 Comment

The Met fan has gotten used to be negative these days. Even in Spring Training it is hard to stay positive when Jose Reyes and Carlos Beltran go down before Opening Day. With all the negativity around these days, I thought it neccessary to point out some positive moments in Met history in my new weekend blog series.

The moment I want to first reflect on was one of the most magical nights that I have ever had at Shea Stadium. The day was June 21, 2006 and the Mets were taking on the Reds. It was my first night back in New York for the summer. My first move was to get to Shea Stadium and after a year hiatus from being in New York, I was very excited to get back. Of course, the Mets too were having a magical ride, and I was anxious to get my first look in person at the ’06 Mets at Shea.

The night started off with me getting a Jose Reyes autograph on my Mets cap, a sure sign of good things to come. The excitement would continue as Jose led off the Mets first inning with a home run. In the third inning, Jose lined a double to give him a 2 for 2 night. Then the cycle started to take shape a Jose hit a triple in the fifth. After a sixth inning K, Jose lined a single to the outfield for the cycle. The crowd at this point exploded, in a highlight tape, Keith Hernandez says “that he has never seen Shea this excited.” Wow, my first game back in town and I see Shea at its maximum volume for a regular season game.

It was the ninth cycle in history and still the last one by a Met, here are the other Met cycles:

Eric Valent,  07-29-2004
John Olerud,  09-11-1997
Alex Ochoa,  07-03-1996
Kevin McReynolds,  08-01-1989
Keith Hernandez,  07-04-1985
Mike Phillips,  06-25-1976
Tommie Agee,  07-06-1970
Jim Hickman,  08-07-1963

Unfortunately, we did not go home happy as Billy Wagner blew the game and the Mets lost 6 to 5. I still own the paper from this game and as the back page says “Billy Gagner” still makes me laugh. Besides the autograph my buddy JP also caught a Reyes foul ball and I got a ball from a batboy which Reyes later signed for me. Certaintly, a night I will never forget for the number reason it was the loudest I ever got to see Shea Stadium. I only hope that I can be in attendance at CitiField for a magical night like this one.

Filed Under: Mets History Tagged With: , , , , ,

Sit down Mets fans, we need to have a talk

Mar 11, 2010 By 1 Comment

Please have a seat.  It’s time we talked man to man about our beloved Mets.  It’s spring training, for the other 29 teams it’s a great time of year.  As a fan your allowed to dream big, you can imagine your team playing important baseball in September, maybe it’s a playoff run your looking to, maybe it’s even getting all the way to the World Series.  It’s all possible in spring training, and that’s why it’s such a cool time of year.

Unless your a Mets fan.

It’s time we took a look at our beloved Mets.  We need to realistically start to come to terms that this season is much more likely to be a train-wreck then it is to end in any semblance of pride.  The news about Beltran first and now Jose Reyes is like going to a five year old on Christmas eve and telling him Santa doesn’t exist.  I feel robbed of my spring dreaming.  I knew it was a long shot trust me, but I allowed myself to have hope.  To imagine everything actually going right like Omar and the Wilpons have cooked up.  It’s time to burst that bubble.

When a guy knows his best-friend’s girlfriend is cheating on him, he doesn’t just sit there and listen to him croon about how in love he is, he sits him down and tells him.  It’s to protect him from great pain in the future.  Consider this your warning folks.  Put down the blue and orange Kool-Aid and listen to me.

Lower your expectations.  A lot.  We haven’t even had one meaningful pitch yet this season and we have lost arguably our 2 most important players for a long period of time.  The Mets are saying Reyes is out for 2-8 weeks.  This is a bit misleading  from my point of view.  The way I read it is he is restricted from physical activities for 2-8 weeks.  What are they going to do just toss him back onto Citi Field the day he is cleared?  No, he’s going to need at the least a mini-spring training to get into shape.  Remember this is a guy coming off leg issues that sidelined him for most of last year, so you absolutely can not rush him.  If Reyes is back before June 1st I think we should consider ourselves lucky.

Run through a scenario with me.  Lets say Reyes is cleared and good to go by opening day, that’s less then 3 weeks away.  He’s now ready to do an extended spring training down in Port St. Lucie to work back into game shape.  Jose is the type of guy that wants to get back as soon as possible and want to prove people wrong.  Not to mention he’s playing for a contract mind you.  Tell me you can’t see the reports now of Jose suffered a setback to his hamstrings because he was working too hard too fast?  Remember that Omar and Jerry don’t have the liberty of patience.  They absolutely need to be off to a good start, anything less and they could be, should be, gone.  There are no excuses this year.

Call me a pessimist but this season is quickly unraveling before our eyes.  We are supposed to believe that things can go completely right and we can compete and make the playoffs.  Unfortuantely wheels are already flying off!  Things are already NOT going right.  Now we are expected to compete with Pagan and Cora playing long stints?   How long till Cora’s thumbs fall off again?  It’s gonna be like domino’s.  And that’s not even considering any setbacks by Beltran.

It’s time for us to open our eyes and take a good raw look at this team, even if the management wont.  Let them continue to count their billion dollar business on “hopes” and “maybes.”  I am starting to feel like we used up all our baseball karma in that Game 6 so many years ago and we have been repaying a deal with the devil ever since.

Filed Under: 2010 Mets, Blogging Tagged With: , , , , , , ,
« Older Posts